It could quite easily be said that the look of sheer entrancement that adorned his face was absolutely priceless. You had a man of few words and marvels completely frozen in place, standing awkwardly in the middle of the sidewalk. His shoulders slouched and his knees were slightly bent, the light reflecting perfectly off of his spectacles and creating a rather obnoxious glare. Passerby's slowed at the sight of him, gawking at his humorous fixated stare. Yes, his eyes were glued to a particular spot on the playground down below.
The Azumano Public Park was the only source of free child entertainment within the entire town. Any such other structured equipment was locked behind enclosed fences at remote elementary schools, thereby being rendered useless after three o'clock in the afternoon. Very few daycare providers had means to obtain simple sports equipment and toys, let alone something as snazzy as a jungle gym.
So at the bottom of the semi-hill was a wide span playground, fully equipped with monkey bars, slides, poles, a dome, teeter totters, and of course, a four-person swing set. The condition of said fixtures was fair, with a presence of rust and daily wear-and-tear, but it certainly held its own. The paint was just starting to fade, but no one really noticed or cared. The sand surrounding the children's paradise was full of leaves, sticks, and other miscellaneous items that had been forgotten or disregarded. Yet again, this seemed to bother no one.
And even though the site before him was far from spectacular, his attention was drawn to the far left swing. There, sitting upon the worn gray seat was a young lady. She was far too old to be considered a child, but not old enough to be called a grown woman. Her long chestnut locks were tied back with a small hair band, although her bangs rest lovely on her forehead and tiny strands hair surrounded her ears and provided a light frame for her face. Her doe eyes were sort of hazed over as they stared up in the direction across from him. In fact, he could just barely see them as they blinked every so often. Something held her attention as much as she held his.
Up across the way stood two teenagers, both with red hair, though the male's was much more vibrant and noticeable. The female had a smooth auburn color to hers and it suited her lively yet cool eyes. Though he could not make out these details from where he had been standing if he wanted to, but his eyes still never tore away from the brunette on the swing. She watched as the pair laughed and grasped each other hands, seeming to be enjoying each others company. A soft smile formed on her pretty pink lips as she watched them and he felt his heart flutter at the sight.
He didn't really understand how she managed to get all of his attention without having to do anything at all, but she had. Her little hands were loosely holding onto the chains of her swing, but her feet did not kick about to perpetuate her. Her white cotton skirt lay in a bunched up mess in her lap, just barely touching her knees, and her plain blue t-shirt hugged her sides snugly, showing off her very nice curves. Her little blue shoes were cast aside elsewhere, her pure white socks shoved carelessly inside.
To anyone else, she looked like an ordinary girl sitting there. Like there was nothing special worth noting about her, but they were wrong. Not that he needed to explain that to anyone, he was rather subconsciously pleased that no one else was as wrapped up in her as he was at that moment. People just walked on by, veered past the both of them on their bicycles and roller skates, not a single soul stopped to behold her beauty.
Good.
It was a strange notion to him that he could just stand about in the middle of the sidewalk like he was, thinking the kinds of thoughts he was, with no repercussions at all. There was no tightness in his chest, no throbbing in his head, nothing to strike at his nerves and cause him to crumble to the ground below. There was no longer a mocking force inside of him trying to burst outwards and into the world. It just felt so weird, so different, so... wonderful, that he almost didn't believe it was real. He was still silently waiting for the rush of pain to swing at him and a pair of narrow golden orbs to replace his oceany blue ones. But it never came.
And once he realized that he was free to do as he wished (or didn't really wish), he found himself ever so slowly moving forward. He wasn't even sure that his feet were lifting off the ground; he could have just been dragging them for all he knew. The only thing that he was certain of was that he was now on the grass and heading down. The sight of the beloved woman was getting larger and larger and she looked even more breathtaking with each inch closer.
His heartbeat became erratic as her feet finally started to sway and her eyes were averted to the play structure. Her eyes glossed back up and looked even more captivating than before. They were a lush milk chocolate color, her long eyelashes overshadowing them, creating an almost silhouette. She faintly sighed in contentment, or perhaps it was disappointment, he wasn't really sure. She didn't look upset, mind you, but she didn't look cheerful either. Not like she usually does.
The last of his supposed rational thoughts went out of his head when he stopped by the swing next to her, his stance shaky in the sand. She caught sight of him and looked up at him in half surprise, half relief. She gave him a small, but true smile, and sad, "Hello, Hiwatari-kun." Blinking and mouth hung slightly open, it was just then that he realized what he had done. He had strayed from his morning path of walking through the park and wandered down to the swings with absolutely nothing prepared to say to this dazzling creature.
It was time to improvise.
"Yes, hello Harada-san. What brings you here?" He said in the most casual tone he could muster. His conversational skills were improving, but he felt very unnatural. He sounded to forced or bored, maybe even uninterested, but he assured himself that he wasn't. No, he was very interested. Did she know that? He'd hoped that she did.
"Well, I was supposed to spend some time today with Riku, but then Niwa-kun showed up and she hasn't come back yet." His eyes momentarily left her and wandered up to where she had been staring at earlier. He could now clearly see that the two redheaded figures from earlier were indeed the elder Harada twin and his best friend. "I see. I'm sorry that you've been kept waiting."
She gave him a puzzling glance, not really certain why he was apologizing, and he started to mentally kick himself for saying something so out of place. He sighed a bit nervously, but quickly perked up at the light sound of her laughter. Looking down at her, her eyes were now closed, her left hand halfheartedly covering her mouth, and she was giggling. The sound was so overwhelmingly adorable that a slight blush couldn't help but creep its way up to his cheeks. But he quickly covered it up and cleared his throat, wondering what was so funny all of a sudden.
"I'm sorry, Hiwatari-kun, it's just... ha-ha, I'm just not used to... ha, not used to you trying to talk to me. You sound so uncertain with your words, like you have no faith or confidence in what you want to say. It's just that you're so..." She trailed off to kill off the rest of her laughter, but he was now dying to know. He was so what? So what? The suspense made his heart slow and pound harshly against his chest that he was sure that even she could hear it.
"But thank you for trying. I like that you're talking to me, you know." She completely switched topics and he couldn't tell if she just forgot what she was saying or if she was trying to play games with him. Honestly, you don't do that to people! "Why don't you grab that swing and stay awhile? Unless you have somewhere to be, that is." He absentmindedly did as she said, taking the chains in his hands and sitting down next to her. He said, "No, I don't have anything planned today," and then stared at the ground. He hadn't been on a swing in ages, it seemed like. In fact, he couldn't recall ever being on one. Of course, he knew how they worked and was certain that he could at least manage a tiny bit of momentum.
Little did he know that while he was trying to learn on the fly, a certain brunette was watching him intently. She seemed increasingly interested in the look on his face. It was so hard to describe, he looked almost bored, but his eyes were lit up. She couldn't tell if he was happy to be on a swing and to be able to be around people without fear of Krad or if he was in absolute shock. His hands gripped the chains a little tightly and she wondered if he even knew what he was doing. His legs kicked slowly and his arms gradually pumped him back and forth. Before too long, he was pathetically swinging and her eyes beamed at him. Now she could clearly see that he looked like a little kid again.
She, too, kicked herself about and was pleasantly surprised to find herself in sync with him. She laughed again and this, of course, regained his attention. He hadn't necessarily forgotten that she was there, but he had been so enveloped in what he was trying to do that that he hadn't realized that they were now in perfect harmony. He subconsciously smiled at watched her sparkling eyes and her hair flow about. It was official, she was the most stunning woman he'd ever seen. She didn't even have to try, she would always be magnificently beautiful.
But thinking such thoughts made him wonder... how long had he felt this way? It had been well over a year now that Dark and Krad disappeared from both his and Daisuke's lives. Daisuke was fortunate enough to have a support system to help him recover from the shock of losing Dark. Even if they weren't best friends, they still shared an incredible bond. It was only natural that he miss him. However, he was not so lucky. After returning home that night, Hiwatari had found his step-father in critical condition. He was rushed to the hospital and was said to be in a coma. After two months of no activity, Hiwatari thought it best to pull the plug.
After the funeral was over, he went back to their oversized home and began packing up his things. He pulled some money, found a decent one bedroom apartment, and moved in there. It wasn't long before it was fully furnished and all set up. Then he began clearing out the old house, selling items worth some money, donating old clothes, furniture, utensils, and so forth, and then throwing away the rest. The whole thing took about three consistent months of work, but he was finally done. After that, he put the house up for sale, it sold in less than a month, and he was done with that part of his life forever.
And somehow, somewhere in that time frame, he found himself falling. Slowly, yet rather hard, he was falling for a certain younger Harada twin. He kept his job with the police force, and although he didn't need to attend school, he still wound up coming to class every day. And whether he got to sit right behind her or halfway across the room, he still found his eyes locked on to her. He picked up on the subtle things about her and found her to be even more irresistible. The way she'd tap her pencil out of boredom, stare off out the window to daydream, the way her brows would furrow when she was concentrated or frustrated, how she would play with the hem of her skirt when she was nervous, or twirl a lock of her hair for no reason at all. Oh, how he noticed those little things.
But his reverie would not last, because he was drawn back out by the sweet sound of her voice. She was giving him that quizzical look that he thought was most adorable on her and he realized that had stopped swinging and she had been calling his name for some time now. "I'm sorry, Harada-san, what were you saying? I was thinking about something." Smiling, she said, "Yeah, I noticed that."
The red tint returned to his cheeks, though this time it was out of embarrassment. Before she could continue with what she wanted to say, he abruptly cut her off, looking shyly at her, and said, "What were you saying earlier?" She asked him what he meant and he said, "You were saying how weird it was for me to talk to you. Then you said that I was just so... and you never finished." Now it was her turn to flush red. Her eyes darted away from him, a smile sneaking its way onto her face. Looking back up, she could see Riku running back towards her, her boyfriend still standing up on the sidewalk. Without even thinking, she said, "You're just so cute, sometimes. Glasses and all."
And for one of the first times in a long time, he found himself to be elated with pure happiness.
"A/N: Do I know how to write the most subtle romantic stuff or what? Seriously, nothing really even happened except for that last part. That's alright, though, I did that on purpose. This was just supposed to show the gradual progression of his feelings after Krad was gone. Hiwatari might have been a little OOC, but I think it's plausible that after a year he would be able to admit his feelings for her to at least himself. Anyway, reviews are loved, so you should leave some on this story."